The sense of touch is one of the five senses by which we gather information about the world around us. The sense of touch gives rise to feelings of pleasure and pain and is used to determine the shape, hardness, texture, and temperature of objects. The sense of touch is used extensively in the field of medicine because the shape and hardness of body internals is often an excellent guide in detecting, diagnosing, and treating disease.
One of the most publicized uses of the sense of touch in medical diagnosis is the detection of breast cancer. One out of every nine women in the United States develops breast cancer. It is the most common form of cancer in women and is the chief cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States. Early detection of breast cancer is extremely important in treating the disease. Breast cancer is characterized by the formation of a lump in the breast. These lumps can be detected by X-ray radiation photography (mammograms) or by manual examination of the breasts. The known tendency of X-ray radiation to cause various types of cancers limits its use for detection. Furthermore, many women fail to receive regular mammograms. Accordingly, most breast cancers are discovered by the detection of lumps by physical examination of the breasts. Manual examination of the breasts is included by most physicians in their routine examination of adult women. To help with early detection, many medical experts also recommend monthly self-examinations for women. When conducting self-examinations in a standing or sitting position, it is recommended that one arm be raised overhead. This position distributes the breast tissue over a greater area and enables a more thorough examination to be conducted.
To reduce friction and thereby facilitate movement of the hands across the breasts, the American Cancer Society recommends that the monthly self-examinations be conducted during a bath or shower when the skin is wet and soapy. For any number of reasons, many women find it inconvenient to take the additional time for self-examination during their bath or shower. And, for obvious reasons, it is not practical to use water and/or soap as a skin lubricant for breast examination when partially clothed, e.g., at a physician's office. Creams, powders, or lotions are more suitable as friction reducers, but still are rarely used because of the mess. Therefore, most physicians and women conduct breast examinations by using their hands directly on dry skin.
Unfortunately, manual examination of the breasts does not ensure that a lump will be detected. In an article entitled "Physicians' Abilities to Detect Lumps in Silicone Breast Model" published in the Apr. 19, 1985 issue of The Journal of the American Cancer Society, Dr. Suzanne W. Fletcher et al. of the University of North Carolina described a study which tested the ability of 80 physicians to detect lumps of varying size, hardness, and depth in silicone breast models. The authors found that the physicians were able to detect only 44 percent of the lumps.
It is not difficult to understand why the detection results were so poor in the study. When conducting a breast cancer examination with bare hands on dry skin, the examiner must ignore the unwanted touch stimuli (the "noise"), e.g., temperature, texture, and, if a self-examination, stimuli from the breast itself, in favor of the touch stimuli (the "signal") which enable the determination of shape and hardness of an object to be made. The sense of touch is clearly an ability which can be developed with practice. For example, thousands of blind persons are able to read Braille lettering, but a person touching Braille for the first time is usually unable to distinguish the number or pattern of the protrusions. Consequently, many experts have recommended more training for physicians to better develop their senses of touch.
Enhancing the sense of touch is the subject of two U.S. patents issued to Don A. Perry and H. Earl Wright, each of which is incorporated by reference. Perry et al, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 34,353, reissued Aug. 24, 1993, discloses a touch enhancing pad and a method of using the pad to enhance the sense of touch. The pad comprises a sealed enclosure of a pliable, elastic material with a liquid lubricant inside the enclosure. The pad is placed between the fingertips and the object being touched. The bottom layer of the pad remains stationary over the object being touched while the top layer moves with the fingertips. Wright et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,354, issued Dec. 27, 1988, discloses a method of enhancing the sense of touch which comprises placing two layers of a pliable, elastic material between the fingertips and the object being touched, maintaining the friction between the two layers of material less than the friction between either the top layer and the fingertips or the bottom layer and the object being touched, and then moving the fingertips over the object.
A product made in accordance with the two Perry-Wright patents is currently sold by Inventive Products, Inc. of Decatur, Ill. Sales of the product, known as the SENSOR PAD.RTM.) touch enhancing pad, were begun in the United States in 1988. The current SENSOR PAD.RTM. touch enhancing pad consists of an enclosure made of polyurethane with a silicone lubricant sealed inside and a plastic handle affixed to the enclosure. The pad is an excellent enhancer of the sense of touch. However, when used for breast self-examination while sitting or standing, the pad must be held by its handle with one hand while the other hand is used for touching. This prevents the woman conducting the self-examination from raising her arm overhead in the recommended position.
Paschal, U.S. Pat. No. 2,694,396, issued Nov. 16, 1954, discloses three embodiments of a massaging device. The third embodiment, shown in FIGS. 6-9a, includes a massaging element and a detachable, washable outer shield. The outer shield attaches to the massaging element by the means of buttons that are attached to a reinforcing strip on the massaging element. The massaging element has two sheet assemblies with an open space therebetween so that an operator's hand may be inserted between the two assemblies. Although this embodiment of the Paschal device can be used with one hand, it does not enhance the sense of touch.
Accordingly, it would be a significant improvement to provide a touch enhancing pad that can be easily used with one hand that enables a woman to conduct a breast self-examination with one arm raised overhead and that also enables a physician to more conveniently conduct a breast examination.